Products / External venetians
External venetians — heat stopped outside the glass
Aluminium venetians mounted on the outside of the window — the most effective solar control there is, because the heat never gets in to begin with.
An interior blind manages heat that has already made it into the room; an external venetian intercepts most of it at the glass, before it ever gets that far. On a building with a genuinely large west-facing wall of glass — common along Kloof Road — the difference in how a living room actually feels by four in the afternoon is not subtle.
The build
Wide aluminium slats, typically 60–90mm, run in guided side rails or cables mounted outside the window, tilting and raising much like an interior venetian but engineered for weather exposure. Given the position, external venetians are effectively always motorised, with a wind sensor for automatic retraction — a product left open outside in a strong gust has to protect itself, and that’s not a feature we treat as optional here.
Honest about the trade-offs
This is a premium spend and a visible change to the facade, so on a sectional title block we check body corporate guidelines before recommending it — some buildings will want the change signed off, and we’d rather know that before a quote goes out than after. It’s also not a retrofit for every elevation; fixing points and a site visit determine what’s realistic.
Where it earns its keep
Homes and apartments with hard west exposure across a large single pane, where an owner has already said “the aircon can’t keep up with that glass wall” — a phrase we hear often enough on this stretch of coast that it’s become the standard reason people ask about external venetians in the first place.
External venetian pricing, per square metre installed
Exterior systems are a different order of product from anything hung indoors, and the figures say so: R3,000 to R4,500 per square metre installed for a crank-operated external venetian, and R4,500 to R6,500 per square metre motorised, with sun and wind sensing where the position calls for it. Marine-grade coatings, guided side rails and the structural fixing work all push a position towards the upper end.
The fixing substrate is assessed on site before anything is quoted, because an exterior blind puts real load into whatever it is bolted to. Read them as planning bands rather than a quote. A small window carries a minimum charge, since the brackets, tube and fitting time hardly reduce with the opening, and the price for each of your windows is settled after the free measure and given to you in writing.
Let’s measure your windows properly.
The measure costs nothing, every window is priced in writing, and we will tell you straight whether external is worth the spend on this glass.